I’m delighted to say that I now have an agent. I am represented by Juliet Mushens of The Agency Group. That’s the short version for those who want to skip to the end.

It’s taken a long, long time to get here. I’m still trying to process it and also work out how long, but probably about 15 years. The fantasy novel that was picked up by Juliet is not my first, or second, or third, or fourth. So, that’s a lot of years of writing, a lot of rejections after carefully studying the Writers and Artists handbook, a lot of going to industry events, writers weekends, spending time on writing websites, forums, reviewing other people’s work, a lot of listening to stories and advice at event panels, making notes, countless nights of staying up very late to work on ‘the novel’. A lot of sacrifices. A lot of turning off the computer game, or TV, to make myself put my bum in the chair and hit the keyboard. I didn’t always do that of course. Some nights I was just too tired after work, or too fed up, or too annoyed and I kept playing and ignored the novel. But I always came back to it, and even when I realised it was time to shelve that novel and try something else, I kept trying and hopefully kept learning. There was absolutely no guarantee that I would succeed, but I had to try because it is something I’ve wanted for a long time. When people talk about me, stubborn doesn’t even nearly cover it.

Speaking of other people, I couldn’t have made it this far without the support and encouragement of many people, friends and family, who always believed in me, even when I didn’t.

This is definitely not the end of the road, just a big step forward, and I’m also very aware that there is still a lot of work ahead, but now I’m actually on the right road. So I’m delighted to be represented by Juliet, who also represents a few friends I’ve met over the years at the conventions, including Lou Morgan, Laura Lam and Andrew Reid.

Right, time to get editing. More news when I have it, but expect sporadic random posts in the meantime about stuff, films, TV, comics etc.